Getting Clients: Design and Graphics

Creating Collages with Picasa

Picasa is a picture cataloging and editing software. If you use a digital camera, you may find Picasa is a great solution for your imaging needs. When Google bought Picasa, it raised a lot of eyebrows. The new version of Picasa is still a free download, but it adds several new features. If you don’t know what Picasa is, head over to the Picasa Web site at http://www.picasa.com and download your free copy. You can't beat the price and you'll be able to to create the cool picture collages that I talk about in this article.

The first time you launch Picasa, it offers to find and catalog all of the pictures on your hard disk or in selected folders. Choose any option, so you have some some pictures to use to explore the program. Once your pictures are cataloged, you find the folder names listed in the left pane and picture thumbnails in the main area. It works much like Windows Explorer with a tree-like structure.

Create a Collage

After you've spent a little time learning how Picasa works, you're ready to get started with the collage. To begin your collage, follow these steps:

1. Click a folder on the left pane that contains the pictures you will be using for the collage.
   
2. Select the thumbnails of the pictures you want to use. Hold down the Shift key while you click to select pictures in a sequence or hold down the Ctrl key while you select to choose non-sequential pictures.
   
3. Click the Collage button in the bottom pane.
   
   
4. Pressing this button opens the Make Collage dialog box.
   
   
   
   
5. Picasa gives you four collage styles that you can choose in the Type drop down dialog box. These styles are:
   
   
   Picture Pile
   
   
   Picture Grid
   
   
   Contact Sheet
   
   
   Multi-Exposure
   
   
6. You can experiment with the styles to find out which one works best for you. You also can change the background of the collage using the Options drop down box. These background choices include:
   
   
   Use Background Picture
   
   
   White, Gray or Black Backgrounds
   
   
7. Finally you can save the collage using these output options:
   
   
   1. Save as Desktop Picture creates a desktop wallpaper.
   2. Current Folder saves the collage in the same folder as the source pictures.
   3. Screensaver Picture Folder saves the collage in Picasa’s default screensaver folder. (By the way, Picasa also includes a cool, free screensaver!)
   4. Choose a Folder lets you specify the folder you want to save to.
      
      
8. After you've made your choices, just click the Create button and let Picasa work its magic.
   

Once the collage is created, Picasa opens it inside its editing environment so that you can play more with basic fixes, tune your images or add pizzazz with some effects. Have fun!